


Coffee

by Runie (Runic)



Series: "We Do Not Work at a Strip Club" [2]
Category: Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Chef Loki, Family, Intersex Loki, M/M, Restaurant Owner Thor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 16:38:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1354288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runic/pseuds/Runie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki's first day at <i>Valhalla</i> is also the day Thor meets Sleipnir.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> This part wasn't originally in the planned series of one shots, but when I added Sleipnir, I realized I needed Thor to meet him before he and Loki started dating.

Loki sighs as he sets down his cell phone. Next to him, Sleipnir kicks his tiny legs, unconcerned with the goings on Loki is dealing with, and continues to paint the clay pony in front of him. “Well, Sleip, grandma is sick, and Sigyn is at work, so it looks like you’ll need to come to work with me for a bit.”

Sleipnir tilts his head up to look at Loki, his face splitting into a huge grin. Loki feels his own lips responding, but it immediately falters when Sleipnir dips his fingers into the blue paint and smears it all over his face.

Loki sighs again and asks a member of the staff for some paper towels. She helps him hold a squirming Sleipnir as Loki wipes the paint off his face. Loki turns away for one second to thank her. When he turns back a second later, Sleipnir is using his paintbrush to spread red paint all over  his forehead rather than the clay.

“This is going to be a long day,” Loki deadpans. Sleipnir giggles like the possessed little creature he is in response.

/

“Guys, Loki stole a baby.”

Loki rolls his eyes at Darcy, but can’t stop himself from clutching Sleipnir slightly tighter. “I did not _steal_ a baby,” he counters. “My sitter is sick, and my neighbor can’t watch him until she gets off at five.”

Volstagg laughs deeply. Sleipnir stares at him with wide eyes as the man bends over to look at him. “And what have you been up to? You’ve got paint all over your face!”

Sleipnir holds up his painted clay pony in response, even as Loki fights the urge to sigh again. “Where do you keep getting all this paint?” he grumbles.

“Ah, well, we will take care of that.” Volstagg walks behind the bar, and returns a moment later with a couple of wet wipes they give to people who order wings. Sleipnir, still amazed by the loud large man, keeps still as Volstagg wipes his face off.

“Thank you,” Loki says grudgingly. “I wouldn’t have brought him, but-”

“Don’t worry about it.” Sif waves him off. “He can stay in Thor’s office until your neighbor picks him up. Come on.”

Sleipnir snuggles against Loki’s shoulder as he follows Sif. “Sleepy,” he mumbles.

“It is about time for your nap, isn’t it?” Loki says, kissing the top of Sleipnir’s head.

“Don’t worry about it, kid. We can take care of that,” Sif assures him, opening the door to the office.

It hasn’t changed since Loki had been in a week ago, except that maybe there are even more papers littering the counter space now. Sif rolls the oversized chair out, and Loki places Sleipnir on it. He immediately curls up, having more than enough room to be comfortable.

Sif goes to the filing cabinet and opens the bottom drawer, pulling out a blanket and pillow. “When Thor first opened this place, he barely left,” Sif explained. “I’d come in and find him asleep at the computer, so since he never uses this file cabinet for anything useful…” She trails off with a shrug. Loki watches as she lifts Sleipnir’s head and slips the pillow underneath with practiced ease before tucking the blanket around him. She has obviously done this numerous times with Thor. Sif returns to the drawer and pulls out three wooden blocks, slipping them under the wheels of the chair. “Just in case he’s like Thor. One time, he ended up rolling himself all the way out the back door. I still think Fandral was at fault, but he swears up and down Thor did it by himself.”

Loki knows Sif is trying to make him comfortable, and he is grateful, but his insides still squirm. It is so unusual to him. If Loki had had to bring Sleipnir to _Jotunheim_ , he would only have gotten away with it because of his father. No one would have been this welcoming.

“All settled?”

Loki turns around to see Jane in the doorway. “One moment,” he tells her. Loki bends down, brushing Sleipnir’s hair back. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me, Sleip. Jane is going to show me some new recipes, but I’ll come check on you in a bit, all right?”

Sleipnir nods sleepily, snuggling into the pillow. “Goodnight, Mumma.”

If Sif or Jane hear what Sleipnir called Loki, neither of them show any sign of questioning it, for which Loki is grateful. He has a dozen excuses, but he never likes going into them.

“All right,” Loki says to Jane as he stands. “Let’s get started.”

/

Thor stares back at the young child sitting in his chair. The dark haired boy has a piece of chicken tender dangling from his mouth, currently turning his french fires into mashed potatoes with one hand, and holding a crayon with the other. The kid gives another tentative slap to his plate, and then continues when Thor makes no move to stop him.

Thor steps back out into the hall, keeping an eye on the kid. “Sif,” he calls.

“Loki’s kid,” she calls back, not even needing to hear Thor’s question. “He’ll be picked up in a couple hours.”

“Right,” Thor says quietly, stepping back into the office. “Okay, little guy, I need my chair, but there’s no reason we can’t share.” Thor acts like he’s going to sit on top of the kid.

“No!” the boy shouts, pushing at the back of Thor’s leg. “Too big! Too big!”

Thor straightens up again. “Hmm, I suppose you’re right.” He slides his hands under the child’s arms and lifts him, sitting down and resettling the boy on his knee. “Better?”

The kid giggles, and returns to smacking at his plate. “Better,” he agrees.

“You have a name?” Thor asks.

“Sleip,” the boy answers, sticking another chicken tender into his mouth.

“That’s a cool name. Mine’s Thor.”

“Thor,” Sleip repeats. He doesn’t look up from the paper he’s drawing on, apparently deciding he likes Thor well enough not to complain.

“What have you got there?” Thor asks, completely forgetting about the paperwork he is supposed to be doing.

“Homework. Daddy said to do it. Numbers.” Sleip holds the paper up to show Thor. “I can count to one hundred.”

“That’s impressive,” Thor tells him. Sleip responds with a giant smile and proceeds to prove to Thor that, yes, he can indeed count to one hundred. Thor spends the next few hours chatting with Sleip, admiring his clay pony, and drawing pictures on the back of bills.

/

Loki freezes when he sees Sleipnir happily babbling to Thor. He has never seen Sleipnir take to anyone outside the family, save for Sigyn. As much as he loves Sleipnir, or maybe because he loves him so much, Loki has been worried about him. He quickly blinks his eyes when he feels tears coming, and silently curses himself.

“Sleipnir,” he calls.

Sleipnir’s head whips around. “Daddy!” Sleipnir cries out, reaching out for Loki.

Thor looks thoroughly put out when Loki picks him up, but Loki feels a vindictive sort of satisfaction that Sleipnir chose him. (Of course he did, Loki is his mother, but it doesn’t stop him from feeling it anyways.)

“Sigyn is here to take you home,” he tells Sleipnir, kissing the side of his head.

“Siggy!” Sleipnir turns in Loki’s grip to look back at Thor. “Bye bye, Thor!”

“Bye, Sleip!” Thor waves at Sleipnir, giving him that huge dopey grin that everyone around Thor seems to find infectious.

“Daddy,” Sleipnir whispers, none too quietly, “I made a new friend.”

“Did you?” Loki kisses his forehead again.

“Thor was nice. Can I come back?”

“We’ll see, baby. But for now, you need to go with Sigyn. She’ll get you dinner and put you to bed, and when you wake up, Mumma will be there.”

“You better.” Sleipnir tries his best to look commanding. Loki emerges from the hallway, and Sleipnir catches sight of Sigyn, immediately going back to the happy bouncy self he was a few moments ago. “Siggy!”

Sigyn turns her smile from Fandral to Sleipnir. “There you are!”

Loki allows Sigyn to take Sleipnir, a small pang in his heart when Sleipnir leaves his arms. “Thanks for this, Sigyn.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” she says, waving him off. “How’s Fárbauti?”

“It’s just a cold, but she didn’t want to give it to Sleip.”

“Quite right,” Sigyn says matter-of-factly. “All right, Sleip, let’s get out of here so your daddy can get back to work.”

“Bye, Daddy!” Sleipnir calls, waving enthusiastically before blowing Loki a kiss.

“Bye, Sleip. Behave yourself!” Loki says, returning the wave. He resists the urge to roll his eyes when he catches Fandral mouthing ‘call me’ to Sigyn, who winks in response.

“His mother?”

Loki jumps at Thor’s voice, but quickly recovers to glare at his new boss. “No.” He turns on his heel to go back to the kitchen, Thor following along like an eager puppy.

“Is he why you had the hours condition?” Thor persists.

“Yes,” Loki snaps, leading Thor back into the office. The moment Thor is over the threshold, Loki spins to face him. “Understand something, since you persist on staring at me like you want to bend me over.”

Thor blinks a few times in surprise, but eventually nods. He makes no attempt to deny that he is still attracted to Loki.

“My son is the most important thing in this world to me. If I ever have to choose between you and my son, I will always choose my son.” Loki takes in a deep breath through his nose, trying to remain defiant. He doesn’t know why he’s doing this; well, he does, but it still doesn’t make sense to him.

“That being said,” Loki continues, “coffee.”

“Coffee?” Thor repeats stupidly.

“Yes.” Loki tries to hide the nervousness he feels, but the longer this goes on, the more Loki feels like he is failing. “You will take me out for coffee after work tonight. There’s an all night café two blocks over. We’ll go there.”

Thor’s smile is so radiant Loki thinks for a minute someone has placed the sun inside the small office. “As you wish.”

“Oh, don’t go quoting _Princess Bride_ to me.” Loki rolls his eyes and tries to move past Thor.

“Loki, one thing,” Thor says, placing a warm hand on Loki’s arm to stop him. The grip is gentle, Loki could easily get away if he wants. He doesn’t. The warmth from Thor’s hand sends a shock through Loki’s system, a wonderful jolt that Loki hasn’t felt in a long, long time. “What made you change your mind?”

Loki shrugs, trying to act as if the whole thing is no big deal. “Sleip likes you, so you can’t be all that bad.”

Thor’s hand drops, but that stupid smile remains. Loki gives a melodramatic shake of his head, making sure there is no chance Thor can miss it. He moves past Thor, putting his back to the oaf before Thor can see his smile.

“Loki,” Thor calls.

Loki sighs loudly and turns back around, fighting the urge to smile again. “What?”

“First official day as an employee of _Valhalla_. Make it good.”

“Don’t underestimate me, Odinson. I’ll always surprise you.”

Thor’s booming laugh echoes in Loki’s ears, and he officially fails at hiding his smile from Thor. “I’m looking forward to it.”


End file.
